Something to make this place a little bit better

When Genre Baker, then eight years old, from North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania was in hospital receiving treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), there was one little machine in the form of a Nintendo DS that made the stays more bearable and now a year older, he is the inspiration for the provision of these portable systems for similar patients at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Speaking to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Genre, now nine years old, describes the time he spent in and out of hospital:

Whenever I was in the hospital, I had to stay there for hours and there was nothing to do but play my (Nintendo) DS... I wanted other kids to be able to have one, too, if they didn't.

His family went on to form the Genre's Kids with Cancer Fund. Recently, over $5000 USD was raised at the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco, where Jodi Fowler ran her first half-marathon since joining the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. She dedicated the run to Genre, whose cancer has gone into remission, though he will still need to undergo treatment until September 2012. Even then, he will have to be in remission for five years without chemotherapy to stand a chance of living cancer-free.

Fowler will be working with the family and Genre's Kids with Cancer Fund in holding its inaugural Footsteps in Faith 5K and Fun Walk on 28th August in downtown Irwin, Pennsylvania.

[source pittsburghlive.com]